Textile guiding and measuring indicia

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to the impregnation of spaced courses of yarn in a fabric with a material which is not visible under daylight but which is visible only when subjected to ultra-violet light, so as to provide guide lines for cutting, or measuring indicia to enable visual counting of the number of yards of cloth in a roll from the end thereof without the necessity of unrolling the bolt.

United States Patent Willis 1 1 Oct. 1, 1974 [5 1 TEXTILE GUIDING ANDMEASURING 2,413,459 12/1946 Lynch 117/335 'r INDICIA 2,638,656 5 1953Tuttle 117/335 T 3,162,642 12/1964 McCaffert 117/335 T Inventor: AliceWillis, 106 Whitshire 3,648,835 3/1972 Yucel 37/137 R Pittsburgh, Pa.15241 [22] Filed; M 22, 1972 Primary ExaminerJames W. Lawrence 1 pp NO237 121 Assistant ExaminerHaro1d A. Dixon [57] ABSTRACT [52] 250/30233/137 ggyig This invention relates to the impregnation of spaced 5] 1Int Cl G0 U10 courses of yarn in a fabric with a material which is not[58] Fie'ld 33/l37 visible under daylight but which is visible only when5 5 T subjected to ultra-violet light, so as to provide guide lines forcutting, or measuring indicia to enable visual f the number of yards ofcloth in a roll from {56] References Cited Coummg O the end thereofwithout the necess1ty of unro111ng the UNITED STATES PATENTS bolt1,822,098 9/1931 Huntress 250/71 R 1,942,763 1/1934 Menshon 117/44 2Claims, 2 Drawmg Flgllres WOVEN OR KNITTED YARN VISIBLE ONLY UNDERULTRA- VIOLET LAMP.

rATENTEDnm 1 m4 1 5;

WOVEN OR KN|TT0 YARN VISIBLE ONLY UNDER ULTRA- VIOLET LAMP.

Fig.2.

UNDER ULTRA VIOLET LAMP 1 TEXTILE GUIDING AND MEASURING INDICIA Thisinvention relates generally to textiles and, more particularly, to wovenand knitted materials and cloth having guiding or measuring means.

An outstanding disadvantage encountered by salesladies, dressmakers,distributors and tailors, when cutting cloth, is there are no trulysuitable guide lines to accurately guide the cutting operation or toindicate measured lengths. For example, when a saleslady sells a yard ormore of material, she must unroll it from a very large bolt of cloth anduse a rule for measuring the amount desired to be cut. Inaccuracies inmeasurement occur since the dispensed piece of cloth may be undervarying degrees of tension when cut. Also difficulty is encountered incutting along a straight line at right angles to the rolled strip ofcloth and following the weave.

Particular difficulties also arise during times that inventory is taken,that is, when determining the amount of material left on various rollsof cloth. It becomes necessary to completely unroll each roll andmeasure the length thereof, then reroll the bolt, which, of course, is avery tedious, time consuming and costly undertaking.

After the cloth is cutand taken home by the housewife for the purpose ofmaking a garment, difficulties are involved in attaching and maintainingin registry a pattern to a piece of cloth and in accurately cuttingalong lines to match those of the pattern, particularly when the clothis over or under tensioned or is somewhat distorted.

Attempts have been made in the past to overcome such objections bymarking the cloth with crayon guide lines for cutting, however thesehave not been truly successful since they not only leave undesirablemarkings but inaccuracies still arise in drawing lines on cloth to guidethe cutting operation.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel means andmethod for overcoming the abovenamed disadvantages by providing uniquelyaccurate guide or measuring lines in cloth or similar items.

A more specific object of the present invention is to weave spaced yarnsin cloth which are not normally visible to the naked eye under visiblelight and which leave no undesirable marks on the cloth.

A still further object of the present invention is to mark or impregnatea thread, prior to knitting it into the cloth so as to provide spacedcourses of marked threads along parallel lines at a predetermineddistance apart to indicate a predetermined dimension or spacing, such asa yard or foot, etc.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a woven or knittedfabric with markings at spaced intervals, such as along parallel woof(or weft) threads, extending across the entire width of the cloth,inclusive of the selvage edge so that upon inspection of one end of theroll of cloth, the marked threads may be counted so as to give anindication of the total length of cloth in a particular roll, thusgreatly facilitating taking inventory.

Another specific object of the present invention is to provide, in aknitted piece of cloth, spaced threads which have been sprayed, brushed,or immersed with coating of fluorescent material which is invisible whensubjected to visible light but which becomes visible only when subjectedto ultra-violet or black light, so as to provide suitable invisiblelines, either serving as guide lines for cutting the cloth or for thepurpose of obtaining measured lengths of cloth from a roll.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study ofthe following description, taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a strip of woven cloth embodying spacedquide or measuring lines according to the teachings of the presentinvention; and,

FIG. 2 is a side view of a rope embodying the present invention.

The present invention is applicable to all woven and knitted materialsincluding cotton, wool, rayon, nylon, polyester, etc. and combinationsthereof.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotesa roll or bolt of cloth having spaced woven or knitted courses of yarn 2impregnated with a fluorescent material immediately before the weavingor knitting process. FIG. 2 shows a rope 4 having bands 5 of suchmaterial. This material is visible only under ultra-violet or blacklight emitted by ultra-violet lamp 3. Spaced, parallel courses of yarn 2are a predetermined distance apart, (1 foot or 1 yard, etc.). Yarn 2 maybe passed over a brush saturated with fluorescent material in dry orliquid form, or it may be passed through a bath of liquid fluorescentmaterial, or perhaps a spool of thread which has already been treatedwith fluorescent material may be used instead.

The fluorescent material is a liquid, powder or paint which is notvisible when viewed under visible light when woven or knitted into apiece of cloth but which will fluoresce and become visible only whensubjected to ultra-violet or black light. It should be transparent orcolorless so as not to be seen under visible light, or, at least, itshould be of the same color as the knitted cloth.

The portion of radiation with frequencies greater and wave lengthsshorter than those of visible light is known as the ultra-violet region.The familiar continuous spectrum of visible light ranging from red toviolet can be produced by passing the light from an open are through aquartz prism and allowing it to fall on a cloth surface. However, if itis allowed to fall on a fluorescent screen, the spectrum will extendbyond the visible and into the region of the ultra-violet. This spectrumarea extends over three octaves of the scale of radiation frequency,arranging roughly from 4,000 angstrom units to below 400 angstrom units.

Fluorescent and mercury lamps can be filtered so that visible energy isabsorbed and emission is primarily in the near ultra-violet or blacklight spectrum having a wave length region of between 3,200 and 4,000angstrom units. The ultra-violet energy emitted is used to excitefluorescent pigments in paints, dyes, or natural materials to make themreadily visible when viewed under ultra-violet light.

Phosphorescent materials, excited by ultra-violet energy daylight orlight from electric lamps, have been shown to have a high brightness ofafter glow for periods of from 6 to 9 hours and some for as long as 24hours after the exciting source has been removed. Certain phosphorescentmaterials, generally combinations of calcium and strontium sulphides,can be used for coating or saturating the marking or guiding threadsbefore beingknitted into the cloth or textiles.

Therefore, the sulphide phosphors will emit light when exposed toultra-violet energy.

While guide threads of predetermined spacings, such as 1 foot or 1 yardapart, have been described, it will be readily apparent that perhapssuch threads can be woven into the fabric along non linear patterns toenable the housewife or tailor to cut along irregular shaped linesduring dressmaking.

Although woven materials have been described as embodying the guiding ormeasuring of knitted threads, such ultra-violet excited threads may beincorporated in other items such as rope, twine, ribbon, wire,insulation, etc. such as by markings every ten feet or other suitableintervals for either denoting measurements t assist in cutting measuredlengths or for purposes of identification by color codes for identifyinga particular rope construction, etc.

Instead of impreganting a course of yarn in a knitted or woven fabric,it is possible to merely paint on or impregnate only a spot of the yarnat both sides of the strip, at the selvage edges, to give the samemeasuring or cutting guide marks.

ln rolling bolts of cloth, the cloth is often folded along alongitudinal medial line and then rolled. In such roll, the abovedescribed spots may be more conveniently located on the folded edge tobe more easily counted when taking inventory of the length of cloth inthe roll.

Salespersons must give extra lengths of cloth to assure that they arenot cutting at an angle or pulling unevenly. With the present invention,such extra length is not necessary, therefore saving costs.

The present invention is useful for textiles generally, such as rugs,wherein similar identification courses or similar dots along the selvageedges may be used either for measuring or for denoting measured lengths.

While I have illustrated and described several modifications of myinvention, it will be understood that these are by way of illustrationonly and that various changes and modifications may be contemplatedwithin the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A bolt of cloth having evenly spaced rows of yarn embodied in thecloth and extending at right angles to the length of the cloth, whichrows are impregnated with a material which is visible under ultra-violetlight and invisible under ordinary daylight, said rows being spacedapart in units of measurement to give a visual indication, whensubjected to ultra-violet light, of guide lines along which to cut thecloth in measured lengths.

length of cloth can be quickly determined.

1. A bolt of cloth having evenly spaced rows of yarn embodied in thecloth and extending at right angles to the length of the cloth, whichrows are impregnated with a material which is visible under ultra-violetlight and invisible under ordinary daylight, said rows being spacedapart in units of measurement to give a visual indication, whensubjected to ultra-violet light, of guide lines along which to cut thecloth in measured lengths.
 2. A bolt of cloth as recited in claim 1wherein said cloth is folded along a longitudinal center line, wherebyupon inspection of one end of the bolt and counting the number ofindicia of said material along the fold, the length of cloth can bequickly determined.